An air of wilful silence hangs about the motivation for a series of attacks on Italian cafés which have, so far, caused limited damage but always with the threat that the next one could be more serious.

Jacob Larsen ponders the meaning but I don't think you have to be Mario Puzo to write the story. Even if none of these café owners has received an explicit threat, the presence of a protection racket hangs over the tale. Couple guys come into your café: "Nice place you got here, Dino." "Yeah, shame if anything happened to it, like happened to Luigi's place last week." "We could fix it so nothing happens." And then you're stuck forking over regular "insurance" payments indefinitely.
Yes, I am thinking about this sketch. posted at 12:05